Finovate Fall ’13: Think Finance, mBank Lead the Pack
Finovate NYC continued on Wednesday, Sept. 11, with a moment of silence to remember the events of 12 years ago, which put an early hush over the hall. After this, the presentations kicked in.
SEPT. 11 MORNING SESSIONS
DoubleBeam
A payments presentation kicked off Day 2. Doublebeam enables mobile payments with a SDK offering. “We power mobile commerce,” but consumers will never know that. It works off a blank check and avoids card rails and interchange fees. It has a grocery store customer and its pitch is that it saves merchants money and offers rewards to customers — as mobile wallets should.
Cool Factor – 3
I Want It – 4
Profit Potential – 3
Finect
Finect is a financial services social network and document library that is fully compliant. Adoption is slowly ramping up since its introduction at NetFinance in the spring, and its document library could prove to be helpful. Social media risk and attacks are on the rise in the financial services world, so more security and oversight is needed. But as far as social media networks go, Finect felt dry.
Cool Factor – 2
I Want It – 4
Profit Potential – 3
Market IQ
Market IQ is a terminal for portfolio managers for generating insights. A black background on its presentation screen communicated the seriousness of the presentation, which was intense. The presentation looked at AAPL using the company’s own model: a nice touch. Market IQ is the exclusive provider of velocity and sentiment data to Dow Jones. We didn’t make that up.
Cool Factor – 4
I Want It – 2
Profit Potential – 3
Unleash
Unleash is a tool for banks and their small business customers. It provides a simple dashboard for high-level looks at the health of a small business for the loan officer. A Star Trek reference provided a slight chuckle. (Geek humor is too rare at Finovate.) Unleash is an example of yet more innovations trickling to the commercial banking side from the consumer side. The product has clear partnership possibilities for FIs.
Cool Factor – 3
I Want It – 3
Profit Potential – 3
miiCard
MiiCard provides online identity services for several verticals, just one of which is financial services. A bitcoin reference — the first (or second?) of the conference — earned it some points. The company showed off its Allre real estate site that allows users to buy houses online with no commissions, apparently. Wow. The product is geo-location aware, which is getting to be table stakes for mobile, and the company has partnered extensively. Trusted identity is that the heart of a lot of what we do online, so there will always be a place for solutions that help with this.
Cool Factor – 3
I Want It – 4
Profit Potential – 3
Think Finance
ThinkFinance showed off its new loan product, Elastic. It’s a payroll-linked emergency line of credit ranging from $200 to $1,000. (Most Americans are unable to get $1,000 for emergencies — yikes.) It will launch in October. Another education tie-in from a lender was shown as part of the loan package. Elastic also reports to the credit bureaus to help build borrowers credit.
Cool Factor – 4
I Want It – 4
Profit Potential – 3
Interactions
Interactions showed off its virtual assistant via what was apparently a live phone call with an IVR system. Oddly, the user is asked to follow a text message link to question fraudulent charges on his account. Hmmm. But the virtual assistant seemed capable.
Cool Factor – 3
I Want It – 3
Profit Potential – 3
Toopher
Toopher is a security solution offering online authentication using the smartphone as an identity factor. The presenter spoke amazingly fast, too fast, actually. The question-mark scores reflect our inability to understand the presenter.
Cool Factor – ?
I Want It – ?
Profit Potential – ?
Future Advisor
Future Advisor Premium is a solution for wealth managers. The intelligent system makes recommendations for affluent customers to save money and the system does all the paperwork. It’s a self-monitoring portfolio.
Cool Factor – 3
I Want It – 3
Profit Potential – 2
Cardlytics
Card-linked offer veteran Cardlytics discussed its sophisticated segmentation and described the value chain clearly. Working with bank transaction data and operating within online statements, Cardlytics powers BankAmeriDeals and works with other big banks’ rewards programs as well. The company showed off its location-sensitive targeting. This platform is very powerful and can do even more in teh mobile space.
Cool Factor – 4
I Want It – 3
Profit Potential – 3
Lighter Capital
Lighter Capital, a Yodlee partner, uses CRM data to drive commercial lending decisioning. The service shows data from the past and projects into the future. The CRM integration is the secret sauce, allowing the company to make its predictions.
Cool Factor – 3
I Want It – 3
Profit Potential – 3
Dynamics
Famous for its push-button cards, Dynamics broke new ground with a prepaid, real-time, rewards-based offering, presented along with KeyBank. This is a real gamification play, with game pieces delivered via email. They also showed off branding on the mag stripe.
Cool Factor – 4
I Want It – 3
Profit Potential – 3
LearnVest
LearnVest is a financial platform with accredited financial planners designed to help users gain control of their financial lives. CEO Alexa Von Tobel showed off its new tablet-based Action Program. Is LearnVest for the affluent or the struggling? A bit of both, it seems. In any case, the user costs were laid out with admirable clarity. The differentiator for the service is the certified financial planners behind the digital platform. Also introduced was LearnVest at Work.
Cool Factor – 3
I Want It – 4
Profit Potential – 3
Jumio
Jumio authenticates identity and speeds up payments over mobile. The platform is called NetVerify.
Cool Factor – 3
I Want It – 3
Profit Potential – 3
mBank & Accenture
MBank is a mobile-first bank from Poland. Accenture co-presented. $500 billion is spent globally supporting branches, mBank said. Its online branch includes video chat, which was shown off to the crowd. MBank looks very cool and showed off a new design, but will it come to the US? (Please?)
Cool Factor – 4
I Want It – 4
Profit Potential – 4
Socure
Socure is an identity proofing company used by Moven and others. It works with social media connections to secure accounts. Fraud is growing rapidly online and social media can be a leaky point, so work in this area is needed. Code on screen! Legit.
Cool Factor – 4
I Want It – 3
Profit Potential – 3
Innovation Agency
Crowdsourcing rears its head with Innovation Café, from the South African company Innovation Agency. The platform performs sentiment analysis on social network posts to see how innovation ideas are playing. It works within organizations to get teams on the same page. The presentation looked joyless, but addresses a crucial area of interest for FIs and the firm’s interest in innovation is sincere.
Cool Factor – 4
I Want It – 4
Profit Potential – 2
Closing Take:
ThinkFinance and mBank were the standouts from the morning session.
